By Nicole Winfield and Maria
Cheng
ROME — Pope Francis underwent successful surgery Wednesday to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in his abdominal wall, the latest maladies to befall the 86-year-old pontiff, who had part of his colon removed two years ago.
The Vatican said there were no complications during the three-hour surgery, which required Francis to be under general anesthe- sia. The pontiff was expected to remain at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for several days, and all papal audiences were canceled through June 18.
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, direc- tor of abdominal and endocrine sciences at Gemelli, who also performed Fran- cis’ 2021 colon surgery, said the operation was successful. A short time later, the pope was awake, alert and even joking.
“When will we do the third one?” he quoted Francis as saying.
During the operation, doctors removed adhesions, or internal scarring, on the intestine that had caused a partial blockage, as well as pain in recent months. Alfieri revealed that Fran- cis had undergone previous undisclosed abdominal surgeries sometime before 2013 in Argentina, which had also caused scarring.
To repair the hernia that had formed over a previous scar, a prosthetic mesh was placed in the abdominal wall, Alfieri said. He added that the pope was suffer- ing from no other patholo- gies, that the tissue removed was benign and that after he recovers, he should be fine.
A feared protrusion, or bulging of the intestine through the hernia tear, was apparently not found.
“It appears they operated on him in a timely fashion with no compromise to his intestine,” said Dr. Walter Longo, chief of colon and rectal surgery at Yale University School of Medicine, who did not participate in the surgery and commented after consulting the Vatican statement on the procedure.
Hernia operations are rarely performed on an eme gency basis, and Alf eri said the surgery had been planned. While unannounced publicly, it appeared timed so Francis would have ample time for recovery ahead of a busy travel schedule later this summer.
At three hours, the pope’s procedure was considerably longer than the standard 60 to 90 minutes doctors say a hernia operation usually takes, but Alfieri noted that the scar tissue from the previous surgeries was completely removed.
Spending more time under anesthesia, coupled with being on a ventilator
irfor so long — in someone who lost part of one lung as a young man — could put the pontiff at risk of breathing complications or a longer-than-expected recovery time, experts said.
Francis remained in charge of the Vatican and the 1.3-billion strong Catholic Church, even while unconscious and in the hospital, according to canon law.
In July 2021, Francis spent 10 days at Gemelli to remove 13 inches of his large intestine. In an interview with The Associated Press in January, Francis said the diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, that prompted that surgery had returned.
After that surgery, Francis lamented that he hadn’t responded well to the general anesthetic. That reaction in part explained his refusal to have surgery to repair strained knee ligaments that have forced him to use a wheelchair and walker for over a year.
However, Alfieri said Francis had no adverse reactions to the anesthesia in 2021 or Wednesday.